The chairman of the group is Dame Mary Archer who was appointed by Prime Minister David Cameron for the four-year term from 2015 from 2018.[2] Dame Mary Archer was reappointed as Chairman 2019–2022 in January 2018.[3]

Contents

The term "National Museum of Science and Industry" had been in use as the Science Museum's subtitle since the early 1920s. The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum is the corporate body of SMG and was established under the National Heritage Act (1983) for the purpose of general management of the group.[4] Prior to 1 April 2012 the group was known as the National Museum of Science and Industry (NMSI).[5][6]

The National Railway Museum was established as a result of the transfer of the British Transport Commission’s railway collection to the Board of Trustees of the Science Museum. The National Science and Media Museum, formerly the National Media Museum, was established by the Science Museum in 1983. The Science Museum was run directly by HM Government until 1984, when the Board of Trustees was established and NMSI was then adopted as a corporate title for the entire organisation.[7] At this point NMSI no longer operated as part of a central government department; instead, it now had the status of a non-departmental public body, operating within the public sector but separately from its associated sponsoring government department, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The Science Museum Group operates as a charity; it also has a wholly owned subsidiary trading company, NMSI Trading Limited, which was established in 1988.

1.
Science Museum, London
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The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and today is one of the major tourist attractions. Like other publicly funded museums in the United Kingdom, the Science Museum does not charge visitors for admission. Temporary exhibitions, however, may incur an admission fee and it is part of the Science Museum Group, having merged with the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester in 2012. It included a collection of machinery which became the Museum of Patents in 1858, and this collection contained many of the most famous exhibits of what is now the Science Museum. In 1883, the contents of the Patent Office Museum were transferred to the South Kensington Museum, in 1885, the Science Collections were renamed the Science Museum and in 1893 a separate director was appointed. The Art Collections were renamed the Art Museum, which became the Victoria. When Queen Victoria laid the stone for the new building for the Art Museum, she stipulated that the museum be renamed after herself. On 26 June 1909 the Science Museum, as an independent entity, the Science Museums present quarters, designed by Sir Richard Allison, were opened to the public in stages over the period 1919–28. This building was known as the East Block, construction of which began in 1913, as the name suggests it was intended to be the first building of a much larger project, which was never realized. It also contains hundreds of interactive exhibits, a recent addition is the IMAX 3D Cinema showing science and nature documentaries, most of them in 3-D, and the Wellcome Wing which focuses on digital technology. Entrance has been free since 1 December 2001, the museum houses some of the many objects collected by Henry Wellcome around a medical theme. The fourth floor exhibit is called Glimpses of Medical History, with reconstructions, the fifth floor gallery is called Science and the Art of Medicine, with exhibits of medical instruments and practices from ancient days and from many countries. The collection is strong in clinical medicine, biosciences and public health, the museum is a member of the London Museums of Health & Medicine. The Science Museum has a library, and until the 1960s was Britains National Library for Science, Medicine. It holds runs of periodicals, early books and manuscripts, and is used by scholars worldwide and it was, for a number of years, run in conjunction with the Library of Imperial College, but in 2007 the Library was divided over two sites. The Imperial College library catalogue search system now informs searchers that volumes formerly held there are Available at Science Museum Library Swindon Currently unavailable, a new Research Centre with library facilities is promised for late 2015 but is unlikely to have book stacks nearby. The Science Museums medical collections have a scope and coverage

2.
South Kensington
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South Kensington is an affluent district of West London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the City of Westminster. It is a built-up area 2.4 miles west- south-west of Charing Cross and it is hard to define boundaries for South Kensington, but a common definition is the commercial area around the South Kensington tube station and the adjacent garden squares and streets. Although the postcode SW7 mainly covers South Kensington, some parts of Knightsbridge are also covered, neighbouring the equally affluent centres of Knightsbridge, Chelsea and Kensington, South Kensington covers some of the most exclusive real estate in the world. It is home to numbers of French expatriates, but also Spanish, Italian, American. There are several French bookshops and cafes in the area and is sometimes referred to as Paris’s 21st arrondissement. Two London Underground stations are located in South Kensington, South Kensington, the area was largely undeveloped until the mid-19th century, being an agricultural area supplying London with fruit and vegetables. The area is the subject of Donovans song Sunny South Kensington, Kensington, California was given that name in 1911 by Robert Brousefield, an American surveyor who at an ealier time lived in the British South Kensington. Notable residents have included, Sir Henry Cole, campaigner, educator and first director of the South Kensington Museum, charles Booth, pioneer of social research, lived at 6 Grenville Place. George Wallis, FSA, artist, museum curator and art educator and his children, including Whitworth Wallis and Rosa Wallis. Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, actor-manager, lived at 31 Rosary Gardens. Sir J M Barrie, playwright and novelist, author of Peter Pan, virginia Woolf, writer, and her sister Vanessa Bell, painter and interior designer, lived at 22 Hyde Park Gate until 1904. Francis Bacon, Irish-born British artist, lived at 17 Queensberry Mews and 7 Reese Mews, benny Hill, comedian, lived at 1 &2 Queens Gate. Nicholas Freeman, OBE, controversial Leader of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, lived in Harrington Gardens, dennis Gabor, electrical engineer and physicist, most notable for inventing holography,1971 Nobel Prize in Physics. Peter Finch, English-born distinguished Australian actor, won 5 BAFTA acting awards and he was the first person to win a posthumous Academy Award in an acting category

3.
Manchester
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Manchester is a major city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 514,414 as of 2013. It lies within the United Kingdoms second-most populous urban area, with a population of 2.55 million, Manchester is fringed by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east and an arc of towns with which it forms a continuous conurbation. The local authority is Manchester City Council and it was historically a part of Lancashire, although areas of Cheshire south of the River Mersey were incorporated during the 20th century. Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a township but began to expand at an astonishing rate around the turn of the 19th century. Manchesters unplanned urbanisation was brought on by a boom in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution, Manchester achieved city status in 1853. The Manchester Ship Canal opened in 1894, creating the Port of Manchester and its fortunes declined after the Second World War, owing to deindustrialisation. The city centre was devastated in a bombing in 1996, but it led to extensive investment, in 2014, the Globalization and World Cities Research Network ranked Manchester as a beta world city, the highest-ranked British city apart from London. Manchester is the third-most visited city in the UK and it is notable for its architecture, culture, musical exports, media links, scientific and engineering output, social impact, sports clubs and transport connections. Manchester Liverpool Road railway station was the worlds first inter-city passenger railway station and in the city scientists first split the atom, the name Manchester originates from the Latin name Mamucium or its variant Mancunium and the citizens are still referred to as Mancunians. These are generally thought to represent a Latinisation of an original Brittonic name, both meanings are preserved in languages derived from Common Brittonic, mam meaning breast in Irish and mother in Welsh. The suffix -chester is a survival of Old English ceaster and their territory extended across the fertile lowland of what is now Salford and Stretford. Central Manchester has been settled since this time. A stabilised fragment of foundations of the version of the Roman fort is visible in Castlefield. After the Roman withdrawal and Saxon conquest, the focus of settlement shifted to the confluence of the Irwell, much of the wider area was laid waste in the subsequent Harrying of the North. Thomas de la Warre, lord of the manor, founded and constructed a church for the parish in 1421. The church is now Manchester Cathedral, the premises of the college house Chethams School of Music. The library, which opened in 1653 and is open to the public today, is the oldest free public reference library in the United Kingdom. Manchester is mentioned as having a market in 1282, around the 14th century, Manchester received an influx of Flemish weavers, sometimes credited as the foundation of the regions textile industry

4.
National Railway Museum
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The National Railway Museum is a museum in York forming part of the British Science Museum Group of National Museums and telling the story of rail transport in Britain and its impact on society. It has won awards, including the European Museum of the Year Award in 2001. It is the home of the collection of historically significant railway vehicles, as well as a collection of other artefacts. It is the largest museum of its type in Britain, attracting 727,000 visitors during the 2014/15 financial year, the museum is a short walk from the railway station in York, either on the road or via a staircase from the rear of the platforms. A roadtrain runs from the city centre to the museum on Leeman Road during half term, holidays, York Park and Ride also serve the museum from the car park entrance, on Line 2. Admission to the museum has been free since 2001 and it is open daily from 10 am to 6 pm from February to November and 10am to 5pm during the winter months. Locomotion – the National Railway Museum in Shildon, County Durham was opened in October 2004 and is operated by the NRM in conjunction with Durham County Council, the earliest are wagonway vehicles of about 1815. Flying Scotsman is among the intended for operation on the National Rail network from time to time. Rail vehicles on display are exchanged from time to time with other organisations, other physically large exhibits are the Stockton and Darlington Railway Gaunless Bridge and several stationary winding engines used on railway inclines. The National Railway Museum holds an open library and archive of railway related material. This includes a significant collection of locomotive and rolling stock engineering drawings from railway works. Copies of many of these drawings are sold to the heritage railway movement to assist with their new build locomotive. They are also sold to modellers who can use the drawing to produce accurate scale models, the library holds more than 20,000 books and 800 journals of which around 300 are active. The archive also holds a collection of technical and test records. The archives also hold some 1.75 million photographs covering the earliest era of photography to the modern day and these include official collections from railway companies and collections from enthusiasts like Eric Treacy and H. Gordon Tidey. In 1999/2000 the Museum began to collect recordings of former railway staff for a National Archive of Railway Oral History and it also holds the archive of steam train recordings by Peter Handford. In 2009 The Forsythe Collection of travel and transport ephemera was acquired for the collection, the Search Engine facility opened in late 2007 and is open from 10,00 to 17,30 Wednesday to Saturday. The archive and library collections can be viewed by anyone without an appointment although the website recommends pre-booking archive materials at least 24 hours in advance, the majority of its collections have been listed on its website for people to view what materials are available prior to their visit

5.
York
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York is a historic walled city at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The municipality is the county town of Yorkshire to which it gives its name. The city has a heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events in England throughout much of its two millennia of existence. The city offers a wealth of attractions, of which York Minster is the most prominent. The city was founded by the Romans as Eboracum in 71 AD and it became the capital of the Roman province of Britannia Inferior, and later of the kingdoms of Northumbria and Jórvík. In the Middle Ages, York grew as a wool trading centre and became the capital of the northern ecclesiastical province of the Church of England. In the 19th century, York became a hub of the railway network, in recent decades, the economy of York has moved from being dominated by its confectionery and railway-related industries to one that provides services. The University of York and health services have become major employers, from 1996, the term City of York describes a unitary authority area which includes rural areas beyond the old city boundaries. In 2011 the urban area had a population of 153,717, the word York derives from the Latinised name for the city, variously rendered as Eboracum, Eburacum or Eburaci. The first mention of York by this name is dated to circa 95–104 AD as an address on a wooden stylus tablet from the Roman fortress of Vindolanda in Northumberland, the toponymy of Eboracum is uncertain because the language of the pre-Roman indigenous population was never recorded. They are thought to have spoken a Celtic language related to modern Welsh, in his Historia Regum Britanniae the 12th century chronicler, Geoffrey of Monmouth, suggests the name derives from that of a pre-Roman city founded by the legendary king Ebraucus. Alternatively, the word already existed as an Old English word for wild swine. The Anglo-Saxon newcomers probably interpreted the part as eofor, and -rac as ric, while -um was a common abbreviation of the Saxon -heem. To them, it sounded as a home rich in boar, as is common in Saxon place names, the -um part gradually faded, eoforic. When the Danish army conquered the city in 866, its name became Jórvík, the Old French and Norman name of the city following the Norman Conquest was recorded as Everwic in works such as Waces Roman de Rou. The form York was first recorded in the 13th century, many company and place names, such as the Ebor race meeting, refer to the Roman name. The Archbishop of York uses Ebor as his surname in his signature, archaeological evidence suggests that Mesolithic people settled in the region of York between 8000 and 7000 BC, although it is not known whether their settlements were permanent or temporary. By the time of the Roman conquest of Britain, the area was occupied by a known to the Romans as the Brigantes

6.
National Railway Museum Shildon
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National Railway Museum Shildon, also known as Locomotion, the National Railway Museum at Shildon or Shildon Locomotion Museum is a railway museum in Shildon, County Durham, England. The museum is a branch of the National Railway Museum, which is part of the Science Museum Group, Shildon acts as an annex, with important exhibits on display in the NRMs headquarters at York, though major exhibits are regularly rotated. The museum was opened on 22 October 2004 by Prime Minister Tony Blair, built at a cost of £11.3 million, it is based on the former Timothy Hackworth Victorian Railway Museum. The museum is operated in partnership with Durham County Council and was expected to bring 60,000 visitors a year to the small town, however, during its first six months, the museum attracted 94,000 visits. In the 12 months to March 2013, the museum had 230,000 visitors, NRM Shildon was shortlisted as one of the final five contenders in the Gulbenkian Prize, which is the largest arts prize in the United Kingdom. The museum is sited near Timothy Hackworths Soho Works on the worlds first passenger railway, the town was to become a major centre for British railway engineering thanks to the Shildon wagon works, which closed in 1984. It is served by all services on the line, operated by Northern, the museum is arranged as stops along the 1 km demonstration line with station direction board signs and information points on the trail between the car parks and the main collection building. The museum has an apron in front of the main shed and another short length of track for showing off resident locomotives. The trail starts at the 19th-century welcome building, the original Sans Pareil is on display here. The second building is Timothy Hackworths house and it contains several activities about the history of Shildon. Soho is a building that was a railway workshop, having originally been an iron merchant’s store. The fourth stop is the goods shed for the town, with most incoming and outgoing goods being delivered to the railway by horse. The building is partially from recycled stone sleeper blocks, the old fixing slots being visible in the wall. As private vehicles are not allowed beyond here for the 750-yard journey to the Collection a courtesy link bus, the Eco Bus, runs from near here on its 15-minute sequence. The railway stations parcel office is the part of the trail and at the junction. The coal drops were a point for steam locomotives. Wagons were hauled up an incline and the coal dropped down wooden chutes into the tender below, the light engine is an interactive pole that displays colours. You can change the name of the if you text in

7.
County Durham
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County Durham is a county in North East England. The county town is Durham, a cathedral city, the largest settlement is Darlington, closely followed by Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees. It borders Tyne and Wear to the north east, Northumberland to the north, Cumbria to the west, historically, the county included southern Tyne and Wear, including Gateshead and Sunderland. The county has a mixture of mining and farming heritage, as well as a railway industry. Its economy was based on coal and iron mining. It is an area of regeneration and promoted as a tourist destination, in the centre of the city of Durham, Durham Castle and Durham Cathedral are a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site. Many counties are named after their town, and the expected form here would be Durhamshire. Thus County Durham is a form of County of Durham. The situation regarding the name with regards to present-day local government is less clear. The structural change legislation which in 2009 created the present unitary council refers to the county of County Durham, the former postal county was named County Durham to distinguish it from the post town of Durham. The ceremonial county of Durham is administered by four unitary authorities, the ceremonial county has no administrative function, but remains the area to which the Lord Lieutenant of Durham and the High Sheriff of Durham are appointed. The Borough of Hartlepool, until 1 April 1996 the borough was one of four districts in the relatively short-lived county of Cleveland, the part of the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees that is north of the centre of the River Tees. Stockton was also part of Cleveland until that countys abolition in 1996, the remainder of the borough is part of the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire. Durham Constabulary operate in the area of the two districts of County Durham and Darlington. Ron Hogg was first elected the Durham Police and Crime Commissioner for the force on 15 November 2012, the other areas in the ceremonial county fall within the police area of the Cleveland Police. Air Ambulance services are provided by the Great North Air Ambulance, the charity operates 3 helicopters including one at Durham Tees Valley Airport covering the County Durham area. Teesdale and Weardale Search and Mountain Rescue Team, based at the Durham Constabulary base in Barnard Castle, respond to search, Cuthbert between Tyne and Tees or the Liberty of Haliwerfolc. The bishops special jurisdiction rested on claims that King Ecgfrith of Northumbria had granted a substantial territory to St Cuthbert on his election to the see of Lindisfarne in 684

8.
National Science and Media Museum
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The National Science and Media Museum, located in Bradford, West Yorkshire, is part of the national Science Museum Group. The museum has seven floors of galleries with permanent exhibitions focusing on photography, television, animation, videogaming, the Internet and it also hosts temporary exhibitions and maintains a collection of 3.5 million pieces in its research facility. In September 2011 the museum was voted the best indoor attraction in Yorkshire by the public, in March 2016 a 7.5 million pound five year investment plan in the museum was revealed by the Science Museum Group. In March 2017 its name was changed from National Media Museum to National Science, entrance is free with the exception of cinema screens. The museum is open 10 am until 6 pm everyday and this new development created a new glass-fronted atrium, which houses a new cafe and shop. Most of the items on display in the gallery are taken from the collection of 35,000 objects. Life Online – Life Online is the worlds first gallery dedicated to exploring the social, technological and cultural impact of the Internet, trace the history of the Internet, uncover how it has changed peoples lives and track the latest trends. BFI Mediatheque – This allows people to access the British Film Institute collection of film and it replaced TV Heaven, a unique viewing facility where visitors could access an archive of more than 1000 programmes covering sixty years of British television history. TV Heaven closed in 2013 after 20 years, but 50 titles are still available, Animation – The Animation Gallery explores the history of animation and animated images, with an emphasis on animation produced in Britain. Includes how animators bring drawings and objects to life, games Lounge – Playable classic games in their original arcade or console formats, the history of video gaming, the story behind this global phenomenon. The museum incorporates the first permanent UK installation of an IMAX cinema, in 1999, IMAX upgraded the system and began releasing IMAX 3D presentations. This cinema is one of three public cinemas in the world permanently equipped to display original 3-strip 35 mm Cinerama prints. In 2008, the presented the only true recorded public screening of Danny Boyles 2002 film Alien Love Triangle. The Cubby Broccoli Cinema, contains 106 seats and is used for a variety of film shows, Insight is a facility where members of the public can view parts of the collections which are not on general display. Subjects include broadcast television using the TV studio on its top floor, the EIMC degree show is held in the Pictureville Cinema. It also contains original toys from the BBC series Playschool – the first programme on BBC2, the collections are accessible to the public through its Insight study centre. The collection of the Royal Photographic Society was transferred to the Museum on behalf of the nation in 2003. In June 2010 it was announced that the Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation had agreed to deposit the animators complete collection of some 20,000 pieces with the National Media Museum

9.
Bradford
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Bradford /ˈbrædfərd/ is in the Metropolitan Borough of the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England, in the foothills of the Pennines 8.6 miles west of Leeds, and 16 miles northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897. Following local government reform in 1974, city status was bestowed upon the metropolitan borough. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Bradford rose to prominence during the 19th century as a centre of textile manufacture. It was a boomtown of the Industrial Revolution, and amongst the earliest industrialised settlements, the textile sector in Bradford fell into decline from the mid-20th century. However, Bradford has faced challenges to the rest of the post-industrial area of Northern England, including deindustrialisation, social unrest. It was recorded as Bradeford in 1086, after an uprising in 1070, during William the Conquerors Harrying of the North, the manor of Bradford was laid waste and is described as such in the Domesday Book of 1086. It then became part of the Honour of Pontefract given to Ilbert de Lacy for service to the Conqueror, there is evidence of a castle in the time of the Lacys. The manor then passed to the Earl of Lincoln, John of Gaunt, The Crown and, ultimately, by the middle ages Bradford, had become a small town centred on Kirkgate, Westgate and Ivegate. In 1316 there is mention of a mill, a soke mill where all the manor corn was milled. During the Wars of the Roses the inhabitants sided with House of Lancaster, Edward IV granted the right to hold two annual fairs and from this time the town began to prosper. In the reign of Henry VIII Bradford exceeded Leeds as a manufacturing centre, Bradford grew slowly over the next two-hundred years as the woollen trade gained in prominence. During the Civil War the town was garrisoned for the Parliamentarians, Sir Thomas Fairfax took the command of the garrison and marched to meet the Duke of Newcastle but was defeated. The Parliamentarians retreated to Bradford and the Royalists set up headquarters at Bolling Hall from where the town was besieged leading to its surrender, the Civil War caused a decline in industry but after the accession of William and Mary in 1689 prosperity began to return. The launch of manufacturing in the early 18th century marked the start of the development while new canal. In 1801, Bradford was a market town of 6,393 people. Bradford was thus not much bigger than nearby Keighley and was smaller than Halifax. This small town acted as a hub for three nearby townships – Manningham, Bowling and Great and Little Horton, which were separated from the town by countryside

10.
Science Museum at Wroughton
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The Science Museum at Wroughton, near Swindon, England, contains the large-object store of the Science Museum and the Science Museum Library & Archives. It is part of the Science Museum Group, the Science Museum took ownership of the 545 acre former RAF Wroughton airfield in 1979, to be used as a storage facility for the largest objects of the Science Museum. A collection of approximately 26,000 objects is currently kept in six of the hangars, from the first hovercraft to MRI scanners, the store is particularly notable for its extensive collection of vintage aircraft, road transport vehicles, agricultural machinery and industrial collections. In 2016 the Science Museum at Wroughton started to be featured in The Grand Tour, the shows three ex Top Gear hosts use some of the roads surrounding the museum buildings as a vehicle test track each week. The object collections at Wroughton are not normally open to the public, in the past there were regular open days when the public could view the collections. The Science Museum Library & Archives collections are part of the Science Museum in London and its holdings include original scientific, technical and medical works from the last 500 years. The Library is free to use and open to the public and it is open on Fridays 10.00 -17.00. The Science Museum Library was founded in 1883 as the Science Library of the South Kensington Museum and it was formed of collections from the South Kensington Educational Library and the library of the Museum of Practical Geology. In 1907 it moved to the Royal College of Science building, when the Science Museum gained its independence in 1909, the Science Library became its responsibility. In 1992 the Library joined with Imperial College London to form the Imperial College & Science Museum Libraries. Due to the demand for space in South Kensington, about 85% of the collections. The largest object at Wroughton is thought to be the Wood Press, the press was acquired in 2001 and weighs 140 tonnes. It is the size of two small houses, charles Babbages notebooks, engineering plans, certificates, social diary and letters. Barnes Wallis’s plans for the bouncing bomb, pearson PLC engineering papers and photographs. The New Cyclopaedia, or, Universal Dictionary of the Arts, list of museums in Wiltshire Science Museum at Wroughton website. Unofficial list of aircraft stored at Wroughton

11.
Swindon
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Swindon is a large town in Wiltshire, South West England, midway between Bristol,35 miles to the west and Reading,35 miles to the east. London is 78 miles to the east, and Cardiff is 78 miles to the west, at the 2011 census, it had a population of 185,609. Swindon became an Expanded Town under the Town Development Act 1952, Swindon railway station is on the line from London Paddington to Bristol. Swindon Borough Council is an authority, independent of Wiltshire Council since 1997. Residents of Swindon are known as Swindonians, the town and wider borough also has the headquarters of the Nationwide Building Society and a Honda car manufacturing plant. The original Anglo-Saxon settlement of Swindon sat in a position atop a limestone hill. It is referred to in the Domesday Book as Suindune, believed to be derived from the Old English words swine and dun meaning pig hill or possibly Sweyns hill, Swindon was a small market town, mainly for barter trade, until roughly 1848. This original market area is on top of the hill in central Swindon, the Industrial Revolution was responsible for an acceleration of Swindons growth. It started with the construction of the Wilts and Berks Canal in 1810, the canals brought trade to the area and Swindons population started to grow. Between 1841 and 1842, Isambard Kingdom Brunels Swindon Works was built for the repair, the GWR built a small railway village to house some of its workers. The Steam Railway Museum and English Heritage, including the English Heritage Archive, in 1878 the fund began providing artificial limbs made by craftsmen from the carriage and wagon works, and nine years later opened its first dental surgery. In his first few months in post the dentist extracted more than 2000 teeth, from the opening in 1892 of the Health Centre, a doctor could also prescribe a haircut or even a bath. The cradle-to-grave extent of service was later used as a blueprint for the NHS. The Mechanics Institute, formed in 1844, moved into a building looking rather like a church and included a covered market, on 1 May 1855. The New Swindon Improvement Company, a co-operative, raised the funds for this path self-improvement and it was a groundbreaking organisation that transformed the railways workforce into some of the countrys best-educated manual workers. It had the UKs first lending library, and a range of improving lectures, access to a theatre, the Institute also nurtured pioneering trades unionists and encouraged local democracy. During the second half of the 19th century, Swindon New Town grew around the line between London and Bristol. In 1900, the market town, Old Swindon, merged with its new neighbour at the bottom of the hill to become a single town

12.
Wiltshire
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Wiltshire is a county in South West England with an area of 3,485 km2. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, the county town was originally Wilton, after which the county is named, but Wiltshire Council is now based in the new county town of Trowbridge. Wiltshire is characterised by its high downland and wide valleys, Salisbury Plain is noted for being the location of the Stonehenge and Avebury stone circles and other ancient landmarks, and as a training area for the British Army. The city of Salisbury is notable for its mediaeval cathedral, important country houses open to the public include Longleat, near Warminster, and the National Trusts Stourhead, near Mere. The county, in the 9th century written as Wiltunscir, later Wiltonshire, is named after the county town of Wilton. Wiltshire is notable for its pre-Roman archaeology, the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age people that occupied southern Britain built settlements on the hills and downland that cover Wiltshire. Stonehenge and Avebury are perhaps the most famous Neolithic sites in the UK, in the 6th and 7th centuries Wiltshire was at the western edge of Saxon Britain, as Cranborne Chase and the Somerset Levels prevented the advance to the west. The Battle of Bedwyn was fought in 675 between Escuin, a West Saxon nobleman who had seized the throne of Queen Saxburga, in 878 the Danes invaded the county. Following the Norman Conquest, large areas of the country came into the possession of the crown, at the time of the Domesday Survey the industry of Wiltshire was largely agricultural,390 mills are mentioned, and vineyards at Tollard and Lacock. In the 17th century English Civil War Wiltshire was largely Parliamentarian, the Battle of Roundway Down, a Royalist victory, was fought near Devizes. The Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry currently lives on as Y Squadron, based in Swindon, around 1800 the Kennet and Avon Canal was built through Wiltshire, providing a route for transporting cargoes from Bristol to London until the development of the Great Western Railway. Information on the 261 civil parishes of Wiltshire is available on the Wiltshire Community History website, run by the Libraries and this site includes maps, demographic data, historic and modern pictures and short histories. The local nickname for Wiltshire natives is moonrakers and this originated from a story of smugglers who managed to foil the local Excise men by hiding their alcohol, possibly French brandy in barrels or kegs, in a village pond. The officials took them for simple yokels or mad and left them alone, many villages claim the tale for their own village pond, but the story is most commonly linked with The Crammer in Devizes. Two-thirds of Wiltshire, a rural county, lies on chalk. This chalk is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group, the largest area of chalk in Wiltshire is Salisbury Plain, which is used mainly for arable agriculture and by the British Army as training ranges. The highest point in the county is the Tan Hill–Milk Hill ridge in the Pewsey Vale, just to the north of Salisbury Plain, the chalk uplands run northeast into West Berkshire in the Marlborough Downs ridge, and southwest into Dorset as Cranborne Chase. Cranborne Chase, which straddles the border, has, like Salisbury Plain, yielded much Stone Age, the Marlborough Downs are part of the North Wessex Downs AONB, a 1,730 km2 conservation area